Back and Forth
by boothaddict77
Summary: A collection of one-shots involving our two favourite people.
1. The Truth in the Lie

**The Truth in the Lie **

**or**

**Crossing the Line**

**A/U. Set... whenever you like.**

'Do you think we should stop?' He stared up at the ceiling, one arm thrown across his head.

His companion spoke next to him.

'No.'

'Good, because I can't.'

She snorted. 'I assume that you don't mean you're physically incapable of stopping, Booth-'

'I am, I am, that's exactly what I mean.' He was literally, physically, incapable of stopping.

'You stopped right now.'

_Yeah, but that's only because I've just had you, and you're lying here in bed with me._

'Do _you_ think we should stop?'

Fabric rustled as he turned his head and looked over at her. 'No, but I do think we have to talk instead of just pretending nothing's happened and lying about it to ourselves.'

'We never lie.'

'Bones, the only time we've been honest in the last couple weeks, we haven't been talking.'

'We _have_ been spending an increasingly large amount of time in bed outside of work.' She mused at the ceiling, in that reflective tone.

'How can you be so calm about this?!'

She looked towards him at his raised voice. 'Would you rather I not be calm?'

'No, I just- you are just so infuriating sometimes, do you know that!'

'Then why are you still here?'

'_Because I- ! _You know why.'

The intensity in his eyes made her shiver in the darkness, but the silence couldn't hide the hitch in her breathing. The pounding of his heart might have done.

He looked away.

'Booth?'

'I-I don't know.' A gruff dismissal.

'Booth, I- where are you going?' her tone was anything but calm as he sat up and set his legs down over the side of the bed, pulling on his boxers in the process. 'Are you leaving?' He raised an eyebrow at the panic in her voice.

'To get a glass of water', he replied clearly to the first question. Instead of reminding her this was _his _apartment, as he stepped into his jeans- because it was cold- still leaving them unzipped, he asked, 'would you like one?'

'No, thank you.'

But he got her one any way. She accepted it, looking up at him.

'Why are _you _still here, Bones?' he murmured into the silence.

'Would you rather I leave?'

'_No_.' That was it. _I'd rather you stayed forever._

She raised the glass to her lips and drank the liquid down in a few speedy gulps. He'd taken to tracking the progress of each drop of water as it traced over her lips and down her neck, clearly exposed and visible in the oversized shirt- his- and further still, down between-

'Booth?'

'Yeah?' licking his lips unconsciously, he raised his eyes to meet hers. He was still in a daze, his head buzzing.

'-even listening to me?'

'Sure I was. Yeah.' He sat down on the edge of the bed and his eyes were drawn back to their previous distraction. 'You think we should change the colour- sheets- and the-water-' the next thing he knew his mouth was on hers, and he tasted the cool drops on her lips that evaporated in the sizzling heat between them as he kissed her deeper… and deeper and deeper. He finally pulled away when the need for air would not be ignored.

She looked at him with dazed baby blue-grey eyes. Temperance blue, he decided.

'What was that for?' she all but panted, and though the words were clear her voice was shaky.

'Nothing.' Fucking magic, every time he kissed her. He almost suggested- _let's have sex again _even as she said they needed to talk, but then she sneezed cutely and looked up at him with those wide Temperance blue eyes as he wrapped a blanket securely around her and suddenly the only thing he'd been afraid she'd find out because he was too impatient to say anything else if they talked came out of his mouth.

'I'm in love with you.' He'd told her he loved her before, but then there had been the possibility he meant it in a more general sense- and he did, in every sense it was possible to mean the word. There could be no confusion this time.

'I know, Booth', she replied serenely, sweetly. Calmly. 'You already told me. I'm in love with you too.' His heart about stopped. She'd said it back then, too, and he'd had the same reaction, but now…

He couldn't bear to hear it repeated, just in case he'd heard it wrong.

'Wait, so… so you didn't misunderstand me then, you- you know how I feel about you.' He wasn't sure he was getting it- he couldn't believe this. 'We've said how we feel about each other.'

'Yes.' She cocked her head to the side and spoke slowly, as if to a child- or him, when he was being daft and un-genius-y.

He couldn't believe this.

'Bones, then why the hell are we-' So much for not getting confused. 'Why are we making such a big deal out of this? I love you, you love me', his heart still leapt saying it out loud and hearing the words again- 'why the hell are we hiding this?' _Why aren't we screaming it from goddamn rooftops?_

'I don't know, I thought it might appear unprofessional if we revealed our relationship to friends and colleagues.' She scrunched up her nose adorably and he couldn't believe his luck- or the absurdity of the situation. 'And what do rooftops have to do with anything?'

He sighed, and shook his head. 'C'mere.'

She snuggled into him and he pulled her closer. 'So we can talk about it now?'

_Oh yeah. And I'm going to tell everyone in the universe within hearing distance and beyond that you're mine. _His body hummed, his mind, even his soul filled happily as he pulled her to him. _Mine, mine, mine._

'Hey, Bones?'

'Mmhm?'

_Can we move in together? _Because _will you marry me_ was going to get a definite no.

'…Nothing.'

'Booth?'

'Yes?'

'I'd like to talk about the possibility of cohabitation.'

He leaned over and kissed her.


	2. Early in the Involvement

**NOTE: THIS IS SLIGHTLY A/U. ASSUMES B&B MET UNDER DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES.**

**Early in the Affair**

They had been discussing a case he'd worked on for the past week. One man had killed another over the oldest reason in the world- a woman. Booth was exhausted after spending hours on this without any rest, but the whole thing had finally been wrapped up and with relief he related the particulars to Bones, his brilliant and ever-curious forensic anthropologist girlfriend with a disdain for all law enforcement officials- save for him, Thank God. (The rest of them had either been too intimidated by her brilliance and afraid to open their mouths at the seminar where they had met, or dismissed her as the pretty little woman _before _being too intimidated by her brilliance to open their mouths. Booth had fallen irrevocably and irreversibly headlong). Bones was still talking. She didn't understand the motivations of the ex-lover, she said, even if the woman had been deceived by his rival into leaving him- jealousy and rage were irrational, and she couldn't imagine anyone taking a life over it. Even experiencing those emotions was inexcusable- intellectually, the very idea was absurd. She couldn't make sense of it, she concluded.

He'd chuckled, but his voice wasn't laced with humour, just affectionate tiredness. 'Baby, if another man touched you, I'd kill him.' He was sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling off his socks. He paused. 'You're going to yell at me for saying that, aren't you?'

She did. And he sat and listened quietly as she lectured him on and on about the implications of his words, and whether he was even aware of how ridiculous he sounded. He looked at her all through, not once breaking eye contact because that was something Booth didn't do. He'd studied her feisty lips and her fiery hair and thought she looked so cute, and then he...then it- Then suddenly he'd gotten up and placed a finger on her lips, silencing her, holding her silent with his desperate gaze and asked one question of his own: 'have you been with…' a beat, a swallow, and then in a rush, 'have you been with someone else since we've been together?' Surprisingly, she didn't slap him. She would normally have been outraged by his actions, and told him off for being domineering and possessive and alpha-male, but it was the five simple words of the last bit that got her. 'Please. I need to know.' It was the look in his eyes she couldn't deny. But then they looked in each other's eyes, 'I don't. Don't answer that.'

But she did anyway.

'No'.

He'd taken a breath as though it was his first in a while, or atleast since they'd started having the conversation. Her own response had come out rather shakily. Whether it was the anger or his touch or proximity or scent was different to tell. She experienced such responses frequently in his presence. Booth spoke again.

_Do you plan to? No._

'Do you know why?' He asked.

'Yes.'

'Thank you.'

Booth blinked a few times, taking a few moments to gather himself, when she remembered, and continued somewhat defiantly, as if triumphing in her now seemingly lost and suddenly recalled disposition (she didn't want to be the woman who surrendered her every defence dammit, but she didn't have any defences left when it came to this man) towards defiance. She was planning to see someone, an old flame with whom she rekindled a relationship every time he was in town- and that would be next week. He'd tensed all over, involuntarily. He didn't know how to react- anything he said or did could jeaopardise their relationship but he couldn't contain himself in the end. There had been more yelling then. _That has nothing to do with you! The HELL it doesn't! You don't own me! You're not seeing __**anyone**__, do you hear me. You can't tell me what to do. Why are you __**doing**__ this to me?_ Finally, it was revealed (almost petulantly) that she had no intention of sleeping with Michael again, and she was only going to meet him to break off their arrangement and find out if he would still like to be friends or work consultants. Booth had calmed down visibly at that pronouncement, though the last part still irritated him a bit. He turned and breathed heavily remembering to keep doing so where he still sat on the edge of the bed and wisely chose not to say anything about it.

'You are an extremely narrow-minded man, aren't you?'

He looked back at her. Yes, he was. He was narrow-minded, and stupid, and old-fashioned, 'And I'm in love with you'.

For some reason only that last part came out. Everything went silent for a long moment. She sat down on the bed. Then she promised never to see Michael again if it bothered him.

**A/N: Well that's a wrap for now, folks. I have a few of these partially A/U one-shots ready, and since this Back and Forth series has already begun, I thought I might include them as part of the series. What are your opinions?  
>Wish me luck, I have a midterm tomorrow :( I need reviews for morale-boosting.<br>Loads of love**

**xx**


	3. The Beginning of Forever

A/N: Another one! Semi AU. Enjoy.

**The Beginning of Forever**

He'd met her at a seminar for some fundraising event at the agency. He'd approached her afterward to have a word with her alone- though the talk had been a huge success, not many people had walked up to her, not many people had the guts to, after all- she was a bestselling author and forensic anthropologist and- he came to stand in front of her, closer than his intention or politeness dictated- breathtaking to boot. They'd exchanged introductions, they'd bickered, they'd argued, but they hadn't been able to stop- in the end he'd told her he was too hungry to function any longer (why didn't they serve pigs in a blanket at this thing instead of tiny snackets that looked like shriveled baby's fingers) and was she coming already or not- this last bit he'd thrown over his shoulder while walking away. Puzzled and frustrated but helplessly intrigued by this enigma of a man she'd just met, she'd followed.

At the end of the evening, he'd kissed her. He couldn't help himself. She was standing there, and she was looking at him with those blue eyes, and she was beautiful- and he had known from the moment he met her. He hadn't been able to stop at a kiss- neither of them had. He felt something that shouldn't be possible in that one moment that ended all too soon, but when he pulled away to look in her eyes, he knew that she was feeling it too. Neither of them exchanged a word as he drove her home. The moment his lips touched hers, his mouth was devouring hers with the same passion with which she was holding on to him. It was beyond perfect. The feeling was indescribable. It was incredible. _Invite me upstairs, please. _He still wasn't sure if he'd spoken the words out loud. But then she'd said yes, and that was the last word spoken between them for a long while. That same day, he'd made love to her. It was perfect. It was indescribable. It was incredible.

That night, he'd told her he loved her. With the dawn, she'd run.

That morning, so had he. Ten times around the block and then as far as he could go, in the opposite direction- about ten miles, if he'd thought to estimate, and then again on the way back. When he got back, it was pouring like crazy. She was standing outside his door, soaked in rain and tears. He walked towards her slowly, even though he'd never wanted to be closer to something in his life- he didn't want to scare her away again. He reached out when he was close enough to touch her.

'I shouldn't have said it-'

'I shouldn't have run.'

Drowning in those blue eyes he looked down into again, he felt like he could breathe for the first time since she'd left. And because he was a gambler (recovering, as he'd told her), because she was worth the risk, because she reminded him he had too much to lose, and because he couldn't lose her, he went on,

'I shouldn't have said it, but I meant it.'

'I know.'

And then he kissed her, and she kissed him back, and it was perfect.


End file.
